


new endings

by eraserheadbaby



Category: Tales of Series, Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Early in Canon, F/M, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:35:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25715896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eraserheadbaby/pseuds/eraserheadbaby
Summary: History never tires of repeating itself.And she always lets it do so.
Relationships: Lailah/Michael (Tales of Zestiria), Lailah/Sorey
Kudos: 3





	new endings

The more she looks at the lake, the more astounded she gets by its beauty. No sun strokes its breezeless surface, no grass or flowers reside on its shore, yet the blue flows with pulchritude that hooks the eyes.

Over the water, malevolence thrives – condensed hatred poisons the air and drifts hazardously through Lailah's lungs. No matter how much her body protests, she herself isn't disturbed. How she wishes it was so.

Still, Sorey looks disturbed enough for them both. He may even feel it more than her, she thinks as she takes in his agonized expression, the palm he has clamped over his throat. 

He will keep breathing in the malevolence, more than anyone else in this blighted world. The Shepherd is, in many ways, an intermediary for humanity's guilt ; he feels the chokehold of this world's sins more than the sinners themselves.

Lailah foreknows the Shepherd's future better than her own. So why – why did she let him do this? Why did she let him pull out that sword from the stone? And why – why did part of her feel happy when he sold his soul to the sword's condemnation?

Sorey then turns to her, and smiles. The rest of his face can barely hide his pain, but surely he smiles.

It is a cherubic smile, and for a moment Lailah almost feels like she's looking at it through a photograph. She has seen this smile before, matted by a different face, but just as hopeful and infectious.

Is this why?

Sorey will be with her as she traverses fate's cycle once more, and her burdens will be shared. Or maybe she should tell it as it is: between them, he really will be the only one carrying the burdens.

And while he carries the burdens, what will saddle Lailah's shoulders will be the buoyant weight of freedom, of wanderlust, of hope. She will see that smile and let herself believe that brighter days are to be had, that humans and seraphim can walk side by side just like she and he did back then, just like she and he do now.

Until one day, there would be nothing and no one to smile for, and nothing and no one to believe in anymore.

She can see it coming all so clearly, yet she is completely helpless against it. Whether she's released from the fateful sword's binds, or she stays paralyzed in her lonely cage, it makes no difference at all.

History never tires of repeating itself. 

And she always lets it do so.

Malevolence, invisible but ever present all the same, swells in the sky above. Lailah responds to Sorey's smile with one of her own, and assures her preordained position as the Shepherd's right hand once more.


End file.
